The Financial Markets Authority (FMA) has issued a warning about a New Zealand company that has the wife of infamous company incorporator Ian Taylor as a director after it was drawn to the regulator's attention by interest.co.nz.
The company is Advanced Global Markets Ltd, or AG Markets.
"AG Markets claims on its website to be registered on the Financial Service Providers Register when it is not. The FMA is concerned that investors may be misled about the extent to which AG Markets is regulated under New Zealand law," the FMA says.
Incorporated as a NZ company on October 14, 2013, AG Markets was on the Financial Service Providers' Register (FSPR) between December 22, 2013 and July 18, 2017 when it was deregistered. It was registered for "trading financial products or foreign exchange on behalf of other persons."
AG Markets remains as a registered NZ company. Companies Office records list the Queensland-based Taya Burnett as a director. Burnett is the wife of Ian Taylor, a member of the infamous company incorporating Taylor family. Interest.co.nz reported last December that NZ Police have received more than 350 criminal investigation enquiries from overseas relating to NZ companies established by the Taylors.
AG Markets' second director is listed as Carlos Ferrer Montalvo of Barcelona. Its shareholder is listed as Vanuatu company Advanced Global Markets Ltd.
The FSPR is like a phone directory for NZ financial service providers. Anyone in NZ providing a financial service such as insurers, banks, fund managers and financial advisers, must be registered on the FSPR, which is operated by Ministry of Business, Innovation & Employment's Companies Office. The FSPR records the name, address and financial dispute resolution service membership of the provider, along with the services it's registered to provide and any licences it may have. However merely being registered on the FSPR doesn't mean an entity is regulated or licensed in NZ or anywhere else.
The two screenshots below were provided to the FMA by interest.co.nz.
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